War Games
by Platinum Dragoness
Summary: The Shitennou train guardtrainees in a very large warinvestigation game.


Title: "War Games"

Fandom: Sailor Moon

Characters: Nephrite, Kunzite, Zoisite, Jadeite

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon and am making no money here.

Theme: Ties

"Are you sure these aren't too tight?" Zoisite whined again.

"They have to be convincing," Kunzite said for the hundredth time. After a minute, his harsh face fell slightly. "They're not really too tight, are they?"

"No, I suppose not. Just annoying. I don't want to be helpless, even if it is just pretending and I can slip them in a few seconds. That might be a few seconds too many."

Zoisite caught Nephrite opening his mouth to "lighten the mood" with a glare that could kill. "If you were about to say _anything_ with the word 'kinky' in it, you'd better shut your mouth or I'll give away this whole charade and come over and kill you!"

Nephrite shut his mouth.

"Hey guys!" Jadeite called, riding in. "They're coming. Get ready!"

Kunzite and Nephrite effected handkerchiefs over their faces quickly. They were clearly bandits—or at least putting in an effort. Kunzite had claimed the blue handkerchief with silver stripes. Nephrite's was painfully yellow with red spots and Jadeite's was pink.

"We have a hostage!" Nephrite bellowed in warning.

"We have captured the rest of your band! Surrender now and face gthe Crown's mercy!"

Nephrite fired off a shot on his bow, hitting one of the guardsmen with a puff of red.

The other guards jumped into action, though, shields raised. They cut Jadeite and Zoisite off from the other two. Jadeite clearly thought he could handle them all because he took his knife from Zoisite's throat to engage them. He went through most of them before taking an unlucky stumble over a broken arrow shaft and being sent to the ground, his tunic now stained bright red.

"Drop your weapons," the lead guardsman called to Kunzite and Zoisite again.

"We a'int gonna s'rrender to ya dogs," Kunzite bit out. "We know wha' Maya' Prentice will do ta tha' likes 'a us. A'int no mercy."

"The mayor's dead. I know one of you is Anya Thalen's brother and her husband Thom's convinced the village counsel to keep this from ending in a hanging. If you just—" He cut off in surprise at the dull thump of a knife impacting his back.

"Last one," Zoisite announced.

Jadeite stood up and brushed himself off, studying the red paint still spreading over his shirt and just threw it off in disgust, along with the pink bandana.

"Good, very good, but not good enough, trainee."

"Yes, sir."

"Only one other group has gotten this far so far," Kunzite continued shucking off both his peasant accent and his bandana.

"You did get most of the bandit band," Jadeite reminded them reassuringly.

"You didn't save the mayor, though." Nephrite considered for a moment. "We're still not sure if that's a bad thing. You'd have had to lock him up or put him down like a mad dog anyhow."

"It wasn't on the point sheet the academy gave us for this exercise. Now, you did get Jadeite away from the hostage, I'll give you. You won't get marked off too much for loosing the actual swordfight. You won't meet many sword masters with Martian training out there." Kunzite cast a slightly disapproving glance at Jadeite. "Who refuse to imitate what they're supposed to be imitating, let alone pretend to loose."

"Lucky hit; I could have taken 'em all," Jadeite claimed.

"Not the point. I was watching your sword work, trainees, and you are not quite disgraces to your rank." Fairly close to praise for a cadet, even considering they had no rank.

"What you weren't expecting was for the royal official to slip his bonds and knife you in the back." Zoisite grinned predatorily.

"We knew he had a few fishy dealings, but we didn't expect… whatever happened, sir."

"If you had followed the leads in the accounts more closely and the information I presume you did not get from Meghan, Thom Thalen's sister, you would have realized the official was feeding tax money to the bandits."

"Was he their real leader, sir?"  
"No. Falcion was the real leader. How much information did you get out of him?"

"None, sir. He was hit by a stray arrow early in the exercise, sir."

"You'll get the full picture at the debriefing then. I'll return you to your instructors. Jadeite, find a new shirt. Zoisite, tie yourself back up."

"Ooh, kinky."

"Nephrite!"


End file.
